Fast And Furious: The Freshman Year

By 
Maryam Fatima. 1st Year. 

Comic Credits: Unsa Athar

So it's that time of the year again when the holiday season sets in. The roller-coaster ride comes to a halt and as you look around, and as you look back, you gain perspective!! Walking down the memory lane, first year seems like a blur (or a kaleidoscope of memories, as Swift would say). As our first session approaches its end, most of us (other than those who can't wait to get out of the place) feel the sadness in the air as we are left with only four more years of fun and then KABOOM!!.. we have entered practical life..!!!

Seniors approaching us on our first day..

Our freshman year began with the day of medical examination, on which most of us took in our surroundings with judgy little eyes. Meanwhile, if we had a dollar for every time a predator (senior) eyed us, we could have paid for the armours and shields we obviously needed in the near future. However, only a few cases of actual ragging were reported.. 



On our orientation day, the naïve first year, all clad in white overalls, cheered oh-so enthusiastically when the clichéd 'cream of the cream' line was thrown at us. What followed later was back-to-back classes for those who did what they were told to, and multiple ragging attacks on those who wouldn't, the details of which cannot be published.. Let's just say that the seniors didn't hate us enough to wish us dead, but knowing that we'd be plagued with a lifetime of nightmares certainly made them feel better..  However the university looked pretty deserted owing to the fact that our seniors had their exams and it wasn't until another month or two that we got to see some hustle and bustle around.

Soon things began picking pace. The shokhi first year could now make its way around the campus without asking for directions, the lack of variety of foods in piccadilly no longer seemed bizarre, the substages had been unanimously voted as freaky fridays (I cannot formulate an expression using tangible words in any language that would even begin to describe how much they pissed us off) and some of the theetas had started loosening up a lil bit giving more and more room to the population that seemed to be attached to their books 'fevicol se'..

 The election campaign started and was intervened. The societies came and introduced themselves to a lively audience whose cheering was louder than the soundtrack of their presentations. The classy welcome party left us in awe of our seniors and introduced us to the versatility and multi-talentedness that defines a pakka kemcolian.

Then came the time of the year when kemcolians saw no good reason to act their age (and i'm not speaking metaphorically :P) - the sports week.. On the theme day, our batch decided to take up the gothic/gangster lifestyle as it was obviously more in line with our aptitude than medicine. On the day of funfair we got even more viral than the harlem shake while the sports day and the day of gymkhana events also saw mass participation and enthusiasm from our class.

Contrary to the popular belief, the creme DE la creme had its energies directed towards anything non-curricular the year round, and it had all the amazing societies at KE to thank for that. The grandeur of KEDS was well reflected through its alL  pak event and later the inter-class event (although the movie night turned out to be one long, never-ending oprah, still better than twilight :P). KAPS, with its amazing film festival, IFMSA, through its open day and several other events, SPWS, by organizing the bake sale and KDS, with its one hell of a play (two, actually), kept us busy the whole year round.
The class function was yet another success featuring talent and spirit that is characteristic of our batch. The three day trip to Murree was probably the best part of the year, ours being the first ever batch to have gone on a stay trip in its freshman year. The crazy bus rides, the chair lift shughal, the pirate ship ride, the 4 km long trekking, the bonfire, the hooting, it was exactly the kinda break we needed from all those fossae and bursae.. 


In a nutshell, it was one hell of a year. Despite the lectures less tolerable than eye-to eye, the AC's that were functional only within a metre's radius, the sub-stages and stages that most of us barely passed, the desperate attempts to evade the angry birds of KE (read pigeons), it also featured the endless shughal at several occasions, the sleepovers at the hostels, the debates that got written at the last minute, the bus rides back home that reflected several doses of sting, the hang-outs, and above all, friends on board all the while during the journey.. Now that the talk of the prof is in the air, we are one step ahead in our metamorphosis into a sophomore.. Time really does fly..!!!